After forty years as a musician, Kev Hopper is probably still best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of Stump, an Irish-English indie/experimental/rock group formed in London in 1983. However, he has since released 14 solo albums of diverse experimental and melodic pop with his distinctive bass playing often to the fore. He also co-formed the electronica group Ticklish in the late ‘90s and was composer/bassist with Prescott in the 2010s. Hopper is also a visual artist (painter) and runs the Youtube site HopperArts, for which he interviews artists.
Out on LP and CD today (24th October), Hopper’s brand new album ‘XiX’ explores Euclidean rhythms (overlapping, complex patterns) and is a mixture of modern electronic experimentation and pop. Running the gamut from Musique concrète to modern electronica, it features the distinctive use of ‘faux’ and modified vocals together with sampling techniques, albeit the dominant aesthetic remains melodic and rhythmic, resulting in a hybrid of sounds that build on his past work. Primarily instrumental, it does also contain four songs that explore topics as diverse as lancing prawns and economic collapse.
Recorded and produced in Whitstable and London, Hopper himself describes the sound of ‘XiX’ as “wonky, wobbly, electronic, surrealist pop.” This is best exemplified by ’Not What’, a song about an identity crisis that boasts a hypnotically rasping hook, a funky beat and vocodered vocal.
“Inhabits a vividly lit world. His special melodic sense is as if a Tin Pan Alley songsmith has tumbled headlong into a hi-tech swamp”
THE WIRE
“Odd-pop electronica, with unnerving vocal manipulations, cascading synth sweetness, plus thumb-piano salsa and angel choir in a Reich-style”
PROG
“Quirky, whimsical electronic experiments. Skittery, light and lively, there is a playfulness that defines these pieces”
AURAL AGGRAVATION